Reversion of bioluminescent bacteria (Mutatox) to their luminescent state upon exposure to organic compounds, munitions, and metal salts.

Mutatox is a new genotoxicity bioassay which uses as the endpoint the bioluminescence produced on reversion of a dark strain of the marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri +/- S9. Reversion can occur by several mechanisms, including base substitution, frame-shift, SOS induction, and DNA intercalation. For screening, Mutatox provides many advantages over the Salmonella typhimurium (Ames) assay: it requires minimal sterility, employs a shorter incubation period, and does not require culture maintenance. Eighteen organic chemicals (phenol, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, nitrotoluenes, others), Na3PO4, and 4 genotoxic metals (Cu2+, Ni2+, As3+, Cd2+) were tested. Most of the organic compounds positive in S. typhimurium assays were positive in Mutatox. None of the metals was genotoxic in V. fischeri, possibly due to poor uptake from the saline medium.